Reversing Time, Recapturing You
by seriousblahblah
Summary: What a stupid conversation for them to be having on their first meeting as two adults. Somehow she imagined their first meeting being more mature, or at least romantic. Not making jokes about groping or him mentioning the blood on her clothes or him seeming scared she wanted to kill him. "Should I call you babe then?" Sirius asked. Hermione narrowed her eyes, "Absolutely not." R&R!


_.~~.~~.~~_

_Reversing Time, Recapturing You_

.~~.~~.

~o~

He lay her down in a bed of wild flowers.

Among shrinking violets and crimson poppies, he held out his hand and playfully tumbled her down onto the grass to peck at her lips.

He traced his hand across her blushing cheek and counted the freckles that marked the perfect imperfection of his love.

Yes, she was young, yes, she was his, yes, she belonged to him completely...

...and he to her.

~o~

_After the Great Battle_

Hermione felt a drop of blood trickle down her lip and add to the further ruin of her clothes. She breathed out a deep sigh and sensed a heavy guilt of...almost...happiness come across her being.

Yes, it was wrong. But yes, it was also so very right.

She lifted the dagger out of Peter Pettigrew's chest and removed the Time Turner from her sweater where it had been warmed by her bosom. Waiting. Ready. Just like her heart was ready to love Sirius for the rest of her life.

She had waited until she was eighteen to do this. She was old enough and she knew the love in her heart would never subside until she met him again. On equal terms. So she had done this for him.

_The enemy of my love is my enemy. _

He was dead. The traitor rat, the filth, was dead.

She had killed him, by travelling back from her seventh year to her third year.

She could go home now.

And she knew exactly to what and whom she wanted to return home to.

~0~

He sat by the fireplace, feeling exhausted just from the essence of being awake and not knowing who to trust or where to go. It had only been half a year since he'd been awarded his freedom, after the undeniable corpse of Peter Pettigrew's body had mysteriously surfaced and the fact of his own innocence had been cleared at long last.

_Dementors, apparently. How simple._

Dementors, according to all the reports, was the official cause of death as Pettigrew had scurried into Hogwarts castle that fateful night.

Somehow, Sirius, did not believe the story of his life could wrap up so simply and clean out.

Sirius did not believe the official story.

Somehow, someone, was doing him a favour. Someone knew his story.

But who?

And why?

It was almost as if he had a guardian angel. At long last, someone cared what happened to his fate enough to meddle with it.

His grey eyes stared even deeper into the fireplace, before he heard a tumble coming from the upstairs of Grimmauld Place and he hurried to see who had entered.

~o~

"You're alright," she breathed out, shaking, and so exhausted and tired she finally collapsed into his arms.

She had travelled several generations in a few hours from her time to her third year and then back to another year ahead of that.

She hoped to never have to time travel again. _The jetlag was killer._

In exhaustion, she could barely open her eyes. Though perhaps it was the tears blurring her vision as she heard his voice and felt his arms wrap around her.

"Do I know you?" Sirius spoke over her.

The sound of his voice was so good. It felt like she had arrived in heaven.

But even richer was his scent and his warmth. His whole presence was like finding joy again.

"Don't you recognize me?"

"Well, you do bear a passing resemblance to Hermione Granger but you're about five years too old to be her age."

Hermione winced. "I'll thank you but no I'm not five years older. Just three."

"Which would make you, what, eighteen?" Sirius mused. "You still haven't told me who you are or why you've intruded on my house ? I don't need to know your age, it's not like I'm marrying you."

Hermione smiled. Perhaps he would be wrong about that one day. But who knew, she would not force him to love her. She was just glad he was alive.

"I'm sorry," she said and tried to find the strength to stand up on her own.

"Don't be a fool, you'll fall over," Sirius said and refused to let her go. "I'll let you down on the couch, how about that?"

Hermione nodded though she much preferred being wrapped in his arms, she allowed Sirius to lay her weakened body on the sofa by the fire.

She smiled absently as she stared at his face. Funny to see Sirius looking healthy and well and well dressed meanwhile she was nearly passed out on his couch looking like she'd come from a battle. Which she had. "I'm sorry I should've explained..."

"...Should explain why there is blood all over your clothes and you have a dagger?" Sirius supplied, holding out the dagger he had somehow snuck out of her back jean pocket.

"Did you grab that from my behind?" Hermione suddenly felt offended.

"I didn't mean to grope your behind, lady, it just happened to rub against my hand when I was trying to stop you from falling over!"

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him. But Sirius lifted up his hands defensively. "Now, c'mon love, why would I bother to grope a lady guest who just happened to break into my house? You could be trying to kill me." He fondly traced the handle of the dagger as if admiring the fine craftmanship.

"Far from it," Hermione said churlishly.

What a stupid conversation for them to be having on their first meeting as two adults. Somehow she imagined their first meeting being more mature, or at least romantic. Not making jokes about groping or him mentioning the blood splatters on her clothes or Sirius seeming scared she wanted to kill him.

As much as she wanted to take-in his handsome face further, Hermione closed her eyes. She was so exhausted she might just fall asleep.

"Is that it then? No-name? For you still haven't provided me any name. You arrive at my house, unannounced with no explanation of how you even knew how to get here. Then proceed to fall asleep on my couch uninvited?" His tone attempted to sound offended but she could tell he was amused. Sirius obviously was enjoying the novelty.

"Yes," she decided and fell asleep straight away. But not before weakly whispering "You're welcome" before completely losing consciousness.

She did not feel unsafe falling asleep defenseless before Sirius Black.

~O~

In the morning, Hermione opened her eyes to find Sirius had covered her with a quilted blanket during the night and had left her dagger by the table next to the couch.

_"So he trusts me not to kill him,"_ she thought bleakly.

She looked under the blanket to see she was still wearing her blood-spattered filthy battle clothes.

_"But not enough to be so kind as use a cleaning spell on me. Probably doesn't want me to accuse him of groping again or tampering with my clothes during my sleep."_

She waited til she heard footsteps outside the door to the parlor room. She heard his whistling cheerfully before stepping into the room.

"Good morning, sunshine," he said. "Did you sleep well?"

Hermione groaned as Sirius promptly opened the curtains of the room letting in large swathes of sunlight.

"Too well, I can't remember anything."

"You broke into my house remember?"

"I meant in terms of dreams. I get nightmares," Hermione said.

"Oh I'm sorry. Here have a coffee." He handed her a mug. Since when was Sirius Black an early riser? He seemed positively chipper.

"No thanks. I need to take a bath," she said straight away. Her hair was matted, her clothes were filthy and she realized she probably was making a bad impression on Sirius. She didn't want his first impression of her to be an unkempt hobo fugitive on the run or something...although ironically that was her first impression of him and yet it had never stopped her from loving Sirius.

Sirius grinned. "We can take care of that in a moment, love. But do you mind telling me who you are and why you decided to make a hotel out of my house?"

Hermione shook her head. "I need food and a hot bath before I can even begin telling you that."

"Not even in one sentence?" Sirius tried.

"It's too long of a story," Hermione said and grabbed a clean towel out of his hands.

"Not even your name? It's one word isn't it? It can't be one of those ten word long pureblood names can it?"

Hermione met his grey eyes. God he was beautiful. It wasn't fair that she was covered in blood and mud still.

"No," she said again resolutely. "If I tell you my name, then I have to tell you the whole story of why I'm here and how I got here. And like I said it's long."

"Should I just call you babe then?" Sirius teased, clearly trying to get a reaction out of her. "Or perhaps sugartits?" She swore she saw his eyes lower ever so slightly to her chest. A blush rose to her face despite trying not to.

Hermione paused to try to make as angry a face as possible. "Please never call me any of those names again."

"What about Rebecca? Or Jordie?" Now he was just teasing her. "Emily?"

"Which way is the bathroom?"

"That way," he said pointing.

But then he followed her down the hallway right up to the door of the bathroom.

"Do you mind?" she said.

"Sorry, forgot my manners," Sirius said with a smirk, yet his eyes briefly lowered over her shirt again and she blushed involuntarily.

"Just looking at the curious blood spatters on your shirt," Sirius reassured her.

"Yes, of course." He clearly totally hadn't checked her out. Or looked at her boobs.

"Well, should I throw your things in the wash after you get in? They'll be dry by the time you get out, or do you want me to rustle out some of my mum's old garbs? They might fit loosely for she was a heavy boned woman."

Hermione thought over her options. "I'll pass you my clothes, can you get the stains out?"

Sirius threw a hand mockingly in the air. "Oh please, I may look like a clueless old wizard to you but I do know a few spells for washing up."

Hermione couldn't help smiling. "I never said you looked old to me," she said and closed the washroom door behind him.

If she didn't know better, she just saw Sirius Black blush.

She smiled to herself as she locked the washroom door behind her and took off her clothes. Then quickly tossed the clothes back out the door and lowered herself into a bath of hot steaming water.

She was finding herself surprisingly at ease being three years in the past with Sirius. He was quite fun to be around.

But then again she had a lot of explaining to do.

And she had to explain some things while omitting others and she of course could never say the real reason she decided to do any of this.

She couldn't tell him she loved and lost him in her past life.

~o~

Hermione walked out of the bathroom wearing a white bathrobe she found there. She wandered back to the parlor and hoped to find her clothes laid out clean and ready for her.

Instead she found Sirius sitting there by the fire and no sign of her clothes.

She probably should've walked right back out but somehow fighting two great battles and travelling three different time zones in one night had made her bolder.

"Feeling better?" Sirius asked as he followed her movements.

"Much better," Hermione said and sat down by the fireplace to dry her hair.

She felt certain Sirius was staring at her very differently now. Perhaps because her face was finally recognizable once the matted blood and mud had been washed off her.

"I was mistaken," Sirius said suddenly. He was still staring intently at her like he couldn't turn away.

"What is it?"

"I thought you were merely pretty," Sirius said. "But I was mistaken, you're beautiful."

Hermione blushed from the roots of her hair to the tip of her toes. Good Merlin that was probably the most romantic thing anyone had ever said to her. But she could hardly think what to say.

"Oh?" she gulped, feeling a bit flustered.

Perhaps she was wrong, perhaps she needn't try hard at all. This Sirius was absolutely attracted to her as an adult. Perhaps it was just a tragedy of time that in her own timezone she had to be so much younger than him.

"You seem nervous," Sirius noticed. "Don't be. I'm only teasing you."

Oops. Shit. He probably thought was she inexperienced. Well, she was. Not that anything was going to happen. Certainly not now. She could take a compliment from a handsome older men without turning into an incoherent puddle of goo, thank you very much. Even if the man in question was the man she'd been in love with for years and had a mad obsession with. She could handle herself, he didn't need to baby her now that he finally noticed her.

She cleared her voice. "I think we should get down to business."

She blushed at how her words sounded, like a double meaning.

"I didn't mean, I mean—"

"I know, I know," Sirius laughed. "You have a lot of explaining to do, don't worry." He pointed at a chair behind him. "I put your clean clothes behind me, why don't you change and I'll be back in a moment? There's also food on a tray there."

"Thank you."

Merlin, Sirius could be a gentleman. Especially considering she was literally an intruder in his home and she still hadn't told him who she was. She was loving him more and more right now, Sirius really was worth the trouble.

She saw that he had perfectly laundered and de-stained her clothes, and he also laid out a tray of fruit and pancakes. She ate quickly but a small amount.

When Sirius knocked at the door, she told him to come in at once and embarrassingly wiped at her mouth.

"You have jam on your lips," Sirius said.

She wiped at her lip. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I wish I could help."

_Good. God. Would Sirius stop flirting with her. This was getting outrageous, her mind was screaming at her._

She tried very hard not to give him a reaction or blush again.

"So?"

"Uhm well, what do you want to know?"

"Why'd you come to my house? This isn't some sort of prank is it, send a beautiful girl to bored Sirius's house to tease him?"

_Good Merlin._ "No! Not at all."

"Then what is your design?" Sirius asked, and she could tell he was suspicious now.

"I came here...because I care about you."

"Impossible you don't even know me."

"I knew you once."

"How? You're too young to have known me in my past."

"That is true."

"So you are a time-traveler?" Sirius suggested.

"Shit." How could he have guessed so quickly?

Sirius smirked. "I'm not as dumb as I appear to be, you will find."

Hermione found some relief. Perhaps it was better he knew as much so he knew why she couldn't answer some questions.

"Past or future?" Sirius asked.

"What?"

"Do I know you from my past or future?"

Hermione thought carefully. She couldn't reveal that he had died once, negating his future self. "Both in a way. I knew you in the past but I do come from the future."

"Hmm. So you are still younger than me then if you are from the future?" Sirius rubbed at his temples. "And dammit, just when I thought I was getting lucky!" He seemed to be upset but then Hermione saw he was smirking.

"You dog!" Hermione said.

"You know that too, don't you. You must've been close to me. What is your name?"

"No, I'd rather not say."

"Are you Hermione?" he asked hesitantly.

_Shit, he'd guessed correctly again._

"What would make you guess that?"

"Well, now that I see you clearly, I don't think you pass a striking resemblance to her, so much as you are her but older. Either that or an older sister. Are you?"

She bit at her lip, numbly. So Sirius Black was much wiser than she made him out to be. Perhaps she should've been less arrogant and adopted a disguise. But then she would've hated having to hide her natural features from him all the time.

"You don't have to be sorry," he said and moved closer to her so that he sat beside her on the couch. "I did notice."

"Notice?"_ What was he talking about?_

"Well, it was painfully obvious. And rather awkward for me, to be honest," Sirius said. "Dealing with that from a minor, I think that's why I was short with you and pushed you away in favour of Harry."

"Sorry what are we talking about?" Hermione asked, her face turning crimson as she thought she understood.

"Your crush on me."

"Oh god how embarrassing." She could feel a part of her die from embarrassment. How could she have been so obvious as a child to moon over him. Now she had to pay the cost as an adult for her lack of subtlety.

Sirius smirked reassuringly. "Don't be. I'm totally flattered now. It's quite a compliment in a way to see you as an adult still mooning over me."

Hermione punched his arm. "I'm not mooning over you. It's not at all like you think, I actually saved your sorry behind and that's why I'm time-travelling!"

Sirius crossed his arms. "I'm not convinced. I think you just came back here to stalk me and are upset I wasn't paying you any attention." He smirked and she felt her panties wet immediately. "But I am paying attention to you now, aren't I?"

Oh god. Why even deny it. She loved this man until the end of times. Well, she wouldn't say she loved him aloud for a long, long time to save pride and face. But wasn't he smart enough to notice anyway? Why play games. It was obvious she came here out of love for him.

Hermione lifted her chin and felt a tear fall down her face again. "This is not how I expected this conversation going."

"You expected the conversation of why you time-travelled to be more serious, did you?" he teased. His breath was close to her ear. She felt a shiver up her spine.

"I don't know. Truth be told, the story of how I came to be here is rather heroic and brave," Hermione said as she remembered the past twenty-four hours. "But you've managed to make it sound like I'm nothing but a schoolgirl with a crush who misused a Time-Turner to come find you."

"Hush, I know you Hermione, I know you've accomplished great things, both past and future. You don't need to explain," he whispered. _"You're the most brilliant witch of your age."_

"Say that again," Hermione said in between races of her heartbeat.

"Why?"

"I missed your voice telling me that."

"I told you that only once," Sirius said. "Well, twice now. We haven't exactly been close. Though I am grateful for you saving my life from the Dementors."

"That was not the only time I saved your life using that Time-Turner."

"How do you think I can begin to repay you Hermione?"

His hand went to her knee and rested there. She felt an eternal bliss in her soul that moment. She felt heady and almost dizzy with excitement and anticipation.

"I can't think of any way," she gulped.

"Think harder, my love, much harder. I mean to repay you very well for you so called _heroic_ _deeds_." Good Merlin he was mocking her even as he teased her body with his attentions.

He turned her around as his arm wrapped around her neck and for a moment they both stared at each other's eyes before Sirius lowered his lips to plunder her mouth and his tongue delved deeply to penetrate her mouth over and over again. In inexplicable joy and pleasure she clung onto his back and grabbed at his hair to deepen the kiss as he lowered her over the carpet floor.

~O~

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**a/n: Thoughts? Funny or more romance? Should she take it to the next level on the carpet or tell Sirius to slow down?**


End file.
